Pupil dilation dynamics track attention to high-level information

It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-08, Vol.9 (8), p.e102463-e102463
Main Authors: Kang, Olivia E, Huffer, Katherine E, Wheatley, Thalia P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Attention - physiology
Biology and Life Sciences
Brain research
Cognitive ability
Consciousness - physiology
Coupling
Data processing
Female
Humans
Information processing
Level (quantity)
Male
Photic Stimulation
Pupil - physiology
Pupils
Reaction Time
Reflex, Pupillary - physiology
Sensory integration
Social Sciences
Thinking - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of overall attentional effort, but are time-locked to stimulus changes during attention (but not during mind-wandering). This finding suggests that pupil dilations afford a dynamic readout of conscious information processing. However, because stimulus onsets in their study involved shifts in luminance as well as information, they could not determine whether this coupling of stimulus and pupillary dynamics reflected attention to low-level (luminance) or high-level (information) changes. Here, we replicated the methodology and findings of Smallwood et al. (2011) while controlling for luminance changes. When presented with isoluminant digit sequences, participants' pupillary dilations were synchronized with stimulus onsets when attending, but not when mind-wandering. This replicates Smallwood et al. (2011) and clarifies their finding by demonstrating that stimulus-pupil coupling reflects online cognitive processing beyond sensory gain.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0102463